--- title: White House Names CIA Chief in Afghanistan By Accident description: The White House inadvertently revealed the name of the top CIA officer in Afghanistan to 6,000 people in a media e-blast canonical: https://time.com/115882/white-house-cia-chief-afghanistan/ author: Noah Rayman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-26T12:37:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:02:38.592Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Names CIA Chief in Afghanistan By Accident og:description: The White House inadvertently revealed the name of the top CIA officer in Afghanistan to 6,000 people in a media e-blast og:url: https://time.com/115882/white-house-cia-chief-afghanistan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0cb25a8994077335/698690d7361760795a90c2ac/president-barack-obama-afghanistan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: President Barack Obama gestures while speaking to troops at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul, Afghanistan, during an unannounced visit, May 25, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Names CIA Chief in Afghanistan By Accident twitter:description: The White House inadvertently revealed the name of the top CIA officer in Afghanistan to 6,000 people in a media e-blast twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0cb25a8994077335/698690d7361760795a90c2ac/president-barack-obama-afghanistan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Accidentally Reveals Name of CIA Chief in Afghanistan > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman May 26, 2014 12:37 PM UTC  President Barack Obama gestures while speaking to troops at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul, Afghanistan, during an unannounced visit, May 25, 2014. President Barack Obama gestures while speaking to troops at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul, Afghanistan, during an unannounced visit, May 25, 2014. Evan Vucci—AP  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman May 26, 2014 12:37 PM UTC The White House[ inadvertently revealed the name ](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/white-house-mistakenly-identifies-cia-chief-in-afghanistan/2014/05/25/ac8e80cc-e444-11e3-8f90-73e071f3d637%5Fstory.html)of the top CIA officer in Afghanistan when it provided reporters with a list of officials participating in President Barack Obama’s surprise Memorial weekend [visit to troops](http://time.com/114214/obama-afghanistan-secret/). In a press list of 15 officials circulated to up to 6,000 recipients, including TIME reporters, one name appeared next to the title Chief of Station, the title of the top CIA officer in a country. The White House, which received the list from military officials, soon realized the mistake and issued a revised copy without the name. TIME is withholding his name after Obama officials cautioned The Washington _Post_, which first reported on the snafu, that the officer and his family could be at risk if his name were published. Given the officer’s prominent role, his identity is probably known by the top echelons of the Afghan government, so it’s still unclear if he will be pulled out of the country, the _Post_ reports. The CIA and the White House declined to comment to the Washington _Post_. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/115882/white-house-cia-chief-afghanistan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/115882/white-house-cia-chief-afghanistan/"},"headline":"White House Accidentally Reveals Name of CIA Chief in Afghanistan","datePublished":"2014-05-26T12:37:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:02:38.592Z","description":"The White House issued a corrected list of officials, without the name of the CIA officer, but only after the initial list had been distributed to more than 6,000 people","url":"https://time.com/115882/white-house-cia-chief-afghanistan/","keywords":["CIA","Afghanistan","White House","President Barack Obama","Kabul","intelligence"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0cb25a8994077335/698690d7361760795a90c2ac/president-barack-obama-afghanistan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Noah Rayman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0cb25a8994077335/698690d7361760795a90c2ac/president-barack-obama-afghanistan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Barack Obama gestures while speaking to troops at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul, Afghanistan, during an unannounced visit, May 25, 2014.","caption":"President Barack Obama gestures while speaking to troops at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul, Afghanistan, during an unannounced visit, May 25, 2014.","creditText":"Evan Vucci—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/cia/","name":"CIA"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/115882/white-house-cia-chief-afghanistan/","name":"White House Accidentally Reveals Name of CIA Chief in Afghanistan"}}]}] ```